Following the advice of Owayneo, the Indians received the white
explorers and settlers with great kindness and hospitality. But the
white men were cruel and crafty and took advantage of the friendly
red men because they wanted the Indian land and schemed by dishonest
methods to obtain possession of large tracts. Soon the Indian saw his
hunting grounds taken and his wigwam threatened with destruction. This
injustice roused his warlike and cruel nature, and relations between
the white man and the red man developed into a ceaseless warfare that
penetrated into every section of the great continent. The former peace
of the wilderness was then marred by one long succession of fierce
fights and terrible massacres.
[Illustration: ON THE WAR-PATH]
Indian warfare was always one of surprises, and ambuscades and fighting
in a land of forest and thicket made such a method possible. For
centuries the Indian youth had been taught this strange mode of attack.
Trained by tests of endurance and of skill, and by knowledge gained
from a hunter’s life of suffering, danger and fatigue, the Indian boy
grew to manhood. He longed for the time when he, too, might strike the
enemy and make a name for himself. The chiefs of the tribe instructed
him in the language of the sky and the earth, in the smallest detail of
woodcraft and in the keenest methods of finding a trail.
[Illustration: WAR-CLUB AND HATCHET]
The most ferocious and skilled warriors were the Mohawks. When, in
the early days of the Massachusetts colony, they made war on the New
England Indians, it is told how these Indians, upon discovering the
enemy, raised the cry from hill to hill, “A Mohawk! A Mohawk!” and fled
without making any resistance. On the trail their keen sight and sense
of hearing made them enemies much to be feared. No forest or thicket
was so dense that they could not find a way through. A broken twig or
a disturbed leaf, a bit of clothing or strand of hair was all they
needed to follow, with deadly surety, the most difficult of trails.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE WAR DANCE]
So well could they imitate the calls of the birds and animals that
many a white hunter was lured to his death, and when they took a
captive they were most unmerciful and tortured their prisoners in many
cruel ways. Burning at a stake and running the gauntlet were among
the most popular methods. To accomplish the latter, they first made
their prisoner run between two rows of women and children who, armed
with sticks, stones and clubs, were expected to hit him. Then the
captive was tied to a stake and the braves and chiefs threw knives and
tomahawks, so that they came as close as possible to the victim without
inflicting wounds. After this ordeal fagots were piled around the stake
and set on fire. So in a most cruel fashion the Indians’ bloodthirsty
nature and their desire for vengeance were satisfied.
With so many traits of savage instinct awakened, it is no wonder that
the white settlers, who were now penetrating every section of the
land, had a hard time of it. While working in the fields or doing
other peaceful tasks some one in the settlement had to be constantly
on the watch for an Indian attack. Riding through the wilderness to
visit a neighbor or to buy supplies at the nearest town was extremely
dangerous, for no one knew the hour or minute when the war-whoop would
sound and the tomahawk fall.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN CLUB]